As far as garden birds are concerned this is the dead time. I have put feeders out in previous years in September and October only to have the food go mouldy. It is a good opportunity to get out the disinfectant and clean the feeders. I have seen nothing in the garden recently, not even a robin. As I was at home I put some food on the ground tray to see if I could attract anything, by nightfall today it was untouched. All I am aware of is wood pigeons, either perched visibly nearby or cooing in the trees. Driving to and from the station I see a few magpies and crows or rooks in the fields. Still no large birds of prey around, hopefully they will return during the winter. The roadside verges have been mowed in Little Chalfont and at the junction of Stony Lane and Amersham road I have regularly seen moorhens for the past week or so pecking in the short grass. It came as a surprise at first as, until the mowing, I had never been aware that there was a pond between the road and the field.
Once upon a time you could find me birding on the Thames marshes almost every weekend through the winter. For various reasons I am now seldom able to travel to good birding sites. I am lucky, however, to live in the beautiful Chiltern Hills and this blog is to document the birds that I see on my own patch.